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Home.
"You're really… really a dragon?"
"Who… is this person?"
Tene was thoroughly annoyed.
They'd summoned her out of nowhere, then wandered off to eat without her. She'd finally finished her work—she'd even done Rosaria and Felix's laundry—and was just about to sit down to a meal when they called her again. She'd come running on an empty stomach, only to find a complete stranger who somehow already knew her true identity.
"It's flawless! I don't have any mana, so I can't sense the stuff the way people talk about, but even accounting for that—you're completely human! Polymorph, right? Is that what this is? How big are you normally? At least bigger than a truck, right? So where does all that mass go? Man… the deeper you dig into fantasy, the more alien it feels compared to the old world—but that alien feeling is half the fun!"
"Huh? Huh? Who even is this person? She's kind of scary… Wait, fantasy? Don't tell me you're also—?"
"Yep. That 'don't tell me' is exactly right. She's a reincarnator, same as us."
"So?! So?! Does that mean I can see the real dragon form? That's incredible!"
And now, completely out of the blue, the woman in front of her was charging at her and pouring out a stream of half-incomprehensible chatter—and on top of that, she was a reincarnator too. Tene was thoroughly overwhelmed.
"W-wait, back up a little!! Explanation first—explanation!!"
The most urgent problem was peeling Louis off her shoulders. The woman had already latched on and started shaking her.
"So… you need my scales, is that it?"
"That's right."
Once things had calmed down enough for an explanation, Tene nodded as if it all made sense—
"If that's all, couldn't we have talked about this after I ate?! I've been starving this whole time!"
—and then immediately clutched her empty stomach and shouted.
"Sorry, sorry. The situation was urgent."
"Hmph…! Anyway, my scales… I've never actually pulled one off myself, but how many do you need?"
"If we go by your true form, one scale should be plenty."
"That much is fine. I think I can manage pulling one off."
"Then that settles the materials!"
"Yes! A dragon weapon!"
"…It's a little creepy hearing myself talked about as weapon material, though."
Having secured Tene's permission—under considerable pressure—Rosaria and Felix cheered with open delight. Tene, for her part, still felt a lingering unease.
"Hold on. We can't make it right away."
Louis, who had been silent until now, lost in thought, stopped them cold.
"Huh? Why not?"
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to work dragon scales? The facilities at the Academy aren't up to the job."
"Ah… right."
"Makes sense. Dragons themselves are basically legends at this point. Of course they wouldn't have the equipment for something like that."
It was obvious once you thought about it. Dragons had been vanishingly rare ever since the Thousand-Year War a millennium ago—little more than creatures of legend. With so few of them around, and no chance to experiment with such exceptional materials, there was nowhere in the Academy… nowhere in the entire Empire, for that matter… that could process dragon materials.
"Then what's the point of even having the materials if we can't use them?"
"We got all excited for nothing!"
The two of them collapsed onto the sofa, deflated by the news that they'd secured a dragon scale they couldn't even work with.
"No, it's too early to give up."
But Louis smiled at them, as if she still had more to say.
"Where did I say I came from again?"
"Huh?"
"You said… the dwarf country…"
"You know dwarves live a long time and are ridiculously skilled with weapons, right?"
"Well… that's common knowledge in fantasy, so…"
"And…?"
"I've practically spelled it out for you and you still don't get it?!"
"…Ah!"
In the middle of their back-and-forth banter, Tene clapped her hands as the realization hit her.
"Then if we go to the dwarf country, they can process my scales!"
"Bingo!"
Louis raised Tene's hand in triumph the moment she caught on.
"…Oh!"
"That's an option…!"
The siblings brightened at once, now that they had another way to work the dragon scales.
"But wait—the dwarf country is up north, right?"
"Yeah. It took me two or three months just to get here… it's pretty far. And I only made it that fast because I hitched a ride with a merchant caravan headed for the Empire. If I'd walked the whole way, it would've taken well over half a year."
"Hmm… that's too far. That's a problem."
Rosaria sank back into worry at the sheer distance to the dwarf lands.
"What are you worrying about?"
"Huh?"
Felix looked at her like she was being dense, then pointed with an outstretched finger.
"We've got something faster than a car, faster than a train, faster than a plane."
"…Ah!"
Rosaria turned to follow his gesture and nodded, finally catching on.
"…I've told you this before, but could you please stop treating me like a vehicle?"
At the end of Felix's pointing finger stood Tene, forcing a smile while visibly swallowing a bubbling storm of emotion.
The next day.
Four people gathered in a remote open field on the eastern edge of the Academy grounds.
"Here. The permits."
"That was faster than I expected."
Felix pulled a sheaf of papers from his coat and handed them to Louis and Rosaria.
Exit permits for the Academy.
As a rule, Academy students lived in the dormitories and couldn't simply leave the grounds whenever they pleased. Most of the professors were under the same restriction. The usual times to leave were the end of term for break, graduation, or expulsion.
But life had a way of stacking up reasons to step outside. That was what exit permits were for.
"I set the window for about two weeks. That should be enough, right?"
"Two whole weeks? Is it okay to miss that much class?"
He'd pulled exit permits for Louis and Rosaria so they could travel to Louis's homeland—the dwarf country. (Tene, as Felix's attendant, didn't need one.) The duration was generous.
"Well, things are still a mess after the last incident. Classes are hard to run properly, and a lot of them are free periods anyway."
"Plus, once I said I was going with them, they gave us a pretty flexible schedule."
"What did you tell them?"
"The dwarf country is famous for high-quality natural mana stones, right? I said we were going to buy some for magical research—field study, basically."
"Anyway, looks like we're ready."
The four of them were packed and ready to leave at a moment's notice.
"More importantly—I finally get to see a dragon's true form!"
Louis, who had never seen Tene's real body, stared at her in a state of pure excitement.
"Hurry! Hurry up and show me! I'm dying of curiosity!"
"Hold on. If she drops the Polymorph with no precautions, it'll cause a riot. We need the camouflage magic first, same as last time."
Felix understood Louis's enthusiasm, but if Tene reverted to her true form with no safeguards, disaster was guaranteed. He reined in the bouncing Louis and raised his staff.
Then—
Saaaah—
"Whoa…! You don't need to draw a magic circle on the ground this time?"
Blue mana poured from Felix's staff, taking shape, and in an instant a magic circle woven entirely of mana unfurled across the air.
"Last time was my first attempt at this kind of spell, so I had to draw it by hand. Now that I've got it memorized and I'm more practiced with magic, this much is easy."
"Ready—are you ready yet?!"
"Can I go now?"
"Just a second… there! You can drop the transformation whenever you want!"
"Ooh…!"
The magic circle flared with a brilliant light, and every last ray of it poured into Tene. Once the light had been fully absorbed and the circle itself faded away, Tene prepared to release her form.
"Alright—here I go—!"
Krrrk—krrrrrk—
Tene closed her eyes and focused, and the earth began to tremble.
"Oh… ohhh…!"
"No matter how many times I see it, this is still insane."
"You're telling me."
Louis stared in open awe at the impossible spectacle. The siblings, by contrast, simply folded their arms and watched, already used to the sight.
Moments later, a dark fog rolled out thick enough to swallow the entire open field.
And then—
"…!? …Ghk—! So this is a dragon's pressure…!"
An overwhelming presence rolled out with the roar, and Louis's entire body broke out in shivers.
A bone-chilling laugh followed hard on its heels.
A sudden gale tore the fog away, and her true form was revealed.
A black dragon of staggering size—so vast that even several dump trucks would have fallen short. Tene's true body had appeared.
"WHOOOOOA!!!!!!! A real dragon!!"
Louis shrieked with pure joy and charged straight at her.
"[Heh heh. Foolish human. You cannot even stand before this body's majesty!]"
"Real dragon scales! Thousands of them! Man…! Just one of these would be enough for a full suit of armor and then some! And that's not all—I could finally make all the magic tools I've never been able to try for lack of materials!"
"[…That's what you're excited about!!]"
Tene had been puffing herself up, dragon pride swelling—until she realized Louis's rapture was aimed not at the dragon, but at the dragon's materials. Her speech snapped right back to normal.
"Alright. Time to head out."
"[Straight to the dwarf country? I don't really know where it is…]"
At Felix's signal, Tene crouched low and laid her tail out like a staircase so they could climb aboard more easily.
"Hup! No—we've got a stop to make first."
"[A stop…?]"
Felix climbed onto her back with ease thanks to her consideration, then shook his head.
"First, we should go pay our respects. It's been a while."
"Wai—?! Don't tell me…"
"[Oh…!]"
"Where? Where are we going?"
"Come on—let's go home for the first time in ages!!"
It had already been two months since they'd arrived at the Academy.
It was time for the family to gather again.
"[Yes, sir!]"
At Felix's declaration, Tene nodded cheerfully and beat her wings. Her body lifted smoothly into the air.
"[Alright—we're off!!]"
And so the four of them left the Academy behind, heading home at last.